Another slow month.  No soundtracks of interest, and Super Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition as PS3 DLC is the only one for games.  I'll wait to see what the reviews say for Resident Evil: The Mercenaries and Zelda: The Ocarina of Time for 3DS. 

Looking forward to True Grit, which finally sees home release on the 7th.  Ditto for The Lord of the Rings: Extended Edition Blu-ray on the 28th, but only if the technical merits are up to snuff.

The Valkyria Chronicles piano album has me mildly interested, but I will hold off on immediate purchase.

Not really a release but important enough to note, I will be attending the Joe Hisaishi charity concert in Paris, France on 6/23.  GET EXCITED!

No soundtracks of interest for me either, although I think I'd like to check out the Play for Japan album, if anything for the donation to the relief efforts in Japan.

I don't even have a 3DS yet so I'm not all that enthused for the Zelda Ocarina of Time remake yet - if there's a bundle, maybe... but I think I'm gonna hold out for a second iteration of the 3DS before picking one up.

Blu-ray there's a few things this month I'm getting:
Lord of the Rings Ext Ed boxset (of course)
Harry Potter and The Order of the Phoenix Ultimate Edition
Harry Potter and The Half-Blood Prince Ultimate Edition

And on ye olde DVD:
Doctor Who - Frontios
Doctor Who - Time and the Rani

Plus a US release of the remastered R2 DVD's for the anime Revolutionary Girl Utena are finally reaching this continent and the first boxset is out in June so I'll finally add this (legitimately) to my collection.

I wonder if Apple has a system in place to forgo their own profits for for-charity iTunes releases such as this.  I certainly hope so.

PS3

Shadows of the Damned

VGM

Play for Japan: The Album
NEO CONTRA Original Soundtrack.. I mean.. SYNTHESIZED3

Ditto.  I was a little bummed to hear this will be an iTunes release.  I'm not a fan of Apple but I sincerely hope all the money from this release will go to Japan relief efforts.  I tweeted Yamaoka asking him if they'll also be releasing this on Amazon's MP3 Store, have yet to hear back.  I'd much rather buy it there!  Every time I have to install iTunes, it feels as though I'm intentionally giving myself a virus.

Looking forward to Shadows of the Damned and Ocarina 3D in the retail department, and hopefully Radiant Silvergun will show up this month as well.
There's also that rather enticing Valkryia Chronicles artbook to look into. A good month, overall.

P.S. I appreciate that Capcom is letting people choose to ignore the Arcade Edition upgrade, because any upgrade that reintroduces that old, tired, hateful Evil Ryu/Demon Akuma BS into Street Fighter isn't an upgrade at all. Just call me Vector.

Delays for this one have been so frequent, that I refuse to believe it even exists until it's actually in my hands.

For games, I will grudgingly buy the 3DS version of Ocarina even though I think it's overpriced at $40, especially in light of the fact that this will mark my fourth version of the game.  I'll also pick up Child of Eden since you all know how much I love Rez and this is basically Rez 2.  The arrival of the 3DS eShop on Monday will mean I can finally buy the DSiWare games I've been waiting to buy, so Shantae: Risky's Revenge will finally be mine!  I'm pretty curious about Alice: Madness Returns, but unlikely to buy it unless it gets very good reviews and comes down in price.  Lastly, I will definitely pick up Super SF4 Arcade Edition, but I can't decide if I should spring for the DLC Tuesday or wait for the disc release later in the month.

As far as I know, the only CD I need to buy this month is Sota Fujimori's Synthesized 3.

Same here.

And are we all not perhaps forgetting that this month will finally see the release of what is probably the most-postponed game in the history of mankind?

Yeah, the Duke is finally back, baby!

I remember playing Duke Nukem 3D way back in the day when nudity, sex, gore and violence were a huge novelty. I'd play every day for a few hours after school while I was home alone, ever wary that I'd be caught playing something that dirty. Back in those days as a 14 year-old, everything sounded like my mother coming home early.

Got an email update from Amazon this morning:

---

Hello,

Due to a lack of availability from our suppliers, we will not be able to obtain the
following item(s) from your order:

Sega "Valkyria Chronicles: Design Archive"
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1926778162

We've cancelled the item(s) and apologize for the inconvenience. We must also apologize for the length of time it has taken us to reach this conclusion.  Until recently, we had still hoped to obtain these item(s) for you.
   
Your credit card will NOT BE CHARGED for this item because you only pay for items when we ship them to you.
   
Your order is now closed.

---

And that, as they say, is that.  Udon, am disappoint.

Whoa, Synthesized 3 is coming with Neo Contra OST?!

Other than that, I already bought Metroid Prime Trilogy. I'm also getting Wii Play: Motion, and waiting for MotoHeroz on WiiWare. Should be fun with friends.

Only those ordered before the release date will feature the Neo Contra OST (it's in a separate jewel case). From what I've heard, prices for Neo Contra OST are going for a pretty penny on auction sites already, due to this limited availability.

Damn! Wonder if there was anything I could have done...

Otaku had it in stock for a few hours, it went fast.  There's currently one on YJA: http://page6.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/auction/f104874041

Blu-ray.com's got their comprehensive review up on all three films.  It sounds promising for the most part, but Fellowship's new color grading scheme is a curious development.  Let's hope we hear something more official for the change soon.

Yesterday Nintendo posted Megaman 5 (YESSSSSSS) on the Wii VC and Donkey Kong '94 to the 3DS one, so yesterday was a very good day. But the DK release is disappointing in that it's only available in black & white, even though old fogeys like myself will remember that it was the first game to include Super Game Boy-specific palettes and borders. So even though I paid for Nintendo's download, I'm better served by continuing to play the ROM installed on my PSP because Nintendo couldn't be arsed to carry over the SGB source code to the VC emulator (and then rattled off some tripe about 'fidelity to the original platform').

I'd also like to complain about the 3DS Shop's approach to pricing. When you buy $10 worth of points on the Wii or DSi shops, you're taxed when you buy the points and the amounts are even. With the 3DS, you're taxed when you make your purchases, and all values are in dollar amounts ending with .99. So essentially when you buy $10 worth of points on the 3DS shop, that cannot be put toward $10 worth of game the way it could if you were buying the same on the DSi, and outside of two free tech demos and the aforementioned halfhearted GB ports, all the 3DS shop has right now is DSiWare. Is Nintendo really not aware of how stupid this all is?

I don't know who's f*cking bright idea that was, but PSN has the EXACT same problem, and it pisses me off to no end. The fact that a $10 card can NOT buy you a $10 game is just completely retarded if you ask me.
Why can't they just include VAT in the price of the game!?
That's how most other regions in the world are doing it...

Not sure if it's just because I live in Delaware, a sales tax free state, but when I buy a $9.99 game on PSN, it only costs me that much. I guess most of the world does seem to go through the issues you are describing, which is most definitely a bummer.

....wow, that's really dumb. They should charge you the tax when you buy it (i.e., pay for a $10 card, charge you $10.81 if you live in Nevada like me).

The way I believe it works is that if you live in a state where the online company you are purchasing from has a physical presence, you get charged sales tax.  If you don't, you don't.  Many states are passing laws to change this (commonly referred to as the "Amazon tax") as they believe it gives out of state businesses an unfair competitive advantage, but Amazon is fighting it pretty hard.

As for the 3DS and PSN shops, the whole wallet concept is idiotic and just a way for Sony and Nintendo to get rich off the interest they make from the money you're not spending.  Wallets should only be for point cards.  If you're using a credit card, it should just hit your card with the exact purchase price amount instead of making you fund your wallet first.  So stupid.

Technically, you're required to pay sales tax on out-of-state orders if you live in a state with a sales tax, but the out-of-state company isn't required to collect it because your state doesn't have the authority to force them to. You're supposed to report it and pay the tax yourself. But no one does this and it's very laxly enforced.